My experience at

NATION

Role

UX UI Designer

Responsibilities

Creat a community dashboard

Time

4 months

Company logo

01.

Context

About the project

NATION is a DAO platform built on the Solana blockchain. It enables co-ops, corporations, and communities to pool resources and share ownership of assets, projects, or causes. The case study showcases the design process for the Community Dashboard, where users can customize community pages, manage funds, oversee members, create community tokens, issue collectible NFTs to members, and propose ideas for fundraising.

Business side

Develop a DAO with a user-friendly interface suitable for various audiences. It should serve both as a social network for engaging with the community and as a robust business tool for fundraising. The platform should support multiple donation methods, from credit cards to cryptocurrencies, while maintaining transparency between the cause and users. Additionally, it should offer users a stake in the project's success.

Proposal creation flow (mobile)

02.

Tasks

My tasks

- Creating a UI kit
- Conducting competitor research
- Identifying functional requirements
- Developing the visual concept
- Conducting design reviews with devs
- Designing layouts and delivering them to development
- Iterating on designs

Team

- CEO
- 1 Engineering lead
- 2 Engineers
- 1 Product designer
- 1 Lawyer

Methods used

- Interviews
- User flows with scenarios
- Prototyping
- Bug-testing

01 / Dashboard (click to enlarge)
02 / Customization (click to enlarge)
03 / Funds (click to enlarge)
04 / Members (click to enlarge)
05 / Tokens (click to enlarge)
06 / Collectibles (click to enlarge)
07 / Proposals (click to enlarge)

03.

Process

Designing the «Proposals» section

Analysis and design

During the analysis of community user needs, it was found that users faced difficulties and time constraints due to the numerous fields required when adding new proposals. To address this issue, a decision was made to streamline and simplify the data entry interface.

The design solution involved breaking the entire process into several logical steps, each corresponding to a separate form to be filled out. This approach allowed users to focus on one stage at a time, reducing cognitive load and minimizing the risk of errors.

«Proposals» addressed the following aspects:

1. Streamlined Form Process: The process of filling out forms is divided into clearly defined stages, allowing users to input information step-by-step without having to navigate a large volume of data all at once. This approach simplifies the task and minimizes errors by focusing on one stage at a time

2. Progress Tracking: At each stage, users can see their current step and the remaining steps, which helps them navigate the process and manage their time effectively

3. Minimizing Input Errors: By limiting the amount of information required at each step, users are less likely to make mistakes, as they can focus on fewer fields at a time.

Conclusion: This approach not only enhanced user efficiency but also improved the quality and accuracy of the data entered.

Designing the «Funds» section

Feedback Collection and Iterations

During the platform development, the initial design included a fundraising system that relied exclusively on cryptocurrency wallets. This approach proved to be ineffective: in the first few months, the platform experienced low fundraising volumes, and sometimes no fundraising activity at all. Many new users abandoned the process at the stage of connecting their crypto wallets.

Key aspects:
1. Transition to a Linear Flow: To simplify the fundraising process, we shifted from a step-by-step model to a two-step linear flow. This change made the process more straightforward and easier for users to understand

2. Expansion of Payment Methods: Introducing alternative payment options beyond cryptocurrency wallets allowed us to reach a broader audience, including users who are not familiar with cryptocurrencies

3. Enhancing Contribution Accessibility: Improving the ease of making contributions and introducing additional payment options decreased entry barriers for new users, encouraging more active community involvement.

Conclusion:
These changes positively impacted community engagement and the volume of contributions. This experience highlighted the importance of flexibility in user flow design and the need for rapid adaptation based on user feedback.

Challenges and their solutions

1. Challenge: Work sometimes faced obstacles due to overlooked legal nuances related to cryptocurrency transactions.
Solution: Enhanced screen and process planning by actively using Miro for visualization, minimizing the need for revisions.

2. Challenge: Prototyping all screens for the community dashboard and stakeholder functionalities significantly slowed down the design process.
Solution: Using components variants reduced the number of screens, speeding up the team's workflow.